Mobile and/or wireless electronic devices are becoming increasingly popular. For example, mobile telephones, portable media players and portable gaming devices are now in wide-spread use. In addition, the features and accessories associated with certain types of electronic devices have become increasingly diverse. To name a few examples, many electronic devices have cameras, text messaging capability, Internet browsing capability, electronic mail capability, video playback capability, audio playback capability, image display capability and handsfree headset interfaces. Exemplary accessories may also include headphones, music and video input players, etc.
Many mobile and/or wireless electronic devices include audio connectors to which accessories, such as, for example, handsfree headsets, headphones, etc. may be connected. Audio connectors and other type of connectors for such devices usually include one or more terminals or terminal portions of respective wires or of printed circuit traces, or the like via which electrical signals are conducted between a connector of the mobile phone, for example, and the connector of the accessory, for example. Sometimes it would be desirable to conduct more signals and/or to provide greater bandwidth for coupling between such electronic devices and accessories than was heretofore possible using standard electrical connectors.
As an example, some audio connectors of portable electronic devices have used five pins or five electrical paths for connection with corresponding pins or electrical paths of the accessory connector of an accessory, and a substantial amount of data, signals, etc. may be transferred via connectors and such connection paths. However, if the number of conductive paths, e.g., the number of pins and/or electrically conductive traces, wires, terminals, etc., were reduced, the amount of data, signals, etc. that could be transferred between the electronic device and accessory may be reduced. For example, a new electrical connector, sometimes referred to as a 3.5 millimeter connector, may have four electrically conductive paths rather than five paths that have been available in other connectors that have been used for similar purposes, e.g., audio signal connection, etc.